The economic good fortunes of Brazil, as increased newspaper circulation and online advertising revenue show, seem to have caught the attention of foreign media companies. Last Sunday, the New York Times announced its plans to launch a Portuguese site in Brazil during the second half of 2013.
The 68th Inter American Press Association (IAPA) General Assembly will conclude Tuesday, Oct. 16, with debates focused on the future of freedom of expression and journalism in the Americas. Since Friday, Oct. 12, reporters, media owners and critics have been meeting in São Paulo, Brazil to discuss crimes against the press, the sustainability of journalism, digital journalism and copyright rules.
The Brazilian broadcaster TV Itapoan's helicopter was shot at in the city of Salvador, Bahia, reported the website Band. A man shot at the helicopter as it flew over the city for the live program Bahia no Ar.
In what’s become the latest episode of aggressions against journalists during the electoral season in Brazil – especially in smaller municipalities – a group of people who were celebrating the victory of one of the candidates for the prefecture of Lagoa Seca threatened to death and tried to break into the car of a reporter from TV Correio, reported Portal Correio.
Prompted by the killing of Luis Henrique Georges, owner of the newspaper Jornal da Praça, in the city of Ponta Porã, Mato Grosso do Sul, Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) warned about the "elevated level of insecurity facing the practice of journalism in certain regions of the country," reported the news agency EFE.
On the eve of municipal elections in Brazil, journalists suffered assaults in several cities across the country. The assaults shared a common thread of alleged illegal behavior by candidates and their supporters.
Owner of the newspaper Jornal da Praça, Luis Henrique Georges, was shot to death in the Brazilian city of Ponta Porã, Mato Grosso do Sul, near the border with Paraguay on Thursday, Oct. 4, reported Uol.
After a series of increasingly aggressive threats from an ex-commander of the Rondas Ostensivas Tobias de Aguiar (ROTA in Portuguese), an arm of the São Paulo Military Police, the newspaper Folha de São Paulo moved its reporter André Caramante to an undisclosed location for his security, reported the newspaper Brasil de Fato.
The newspaper Diário de Natal, which circulates in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, announced the end of its print edition on Tuesday, Oct. 2, reported the news website No Minuto. In a statement, the newspaper's management said the newspaper would transition to an online-only format and that it would "prioritize and amplify the electronic version."
The United States and Cuba are at opposite extremes of Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net 2012 report. According to the New York-based organization, the United States was ranked the second most “free” country in the world for online expression, while Cuba was listed as the second to worst.
Brazilian reporter Patrícia Cornils got a surprising response after sharing on Facebook a Google Docs worksheet listing fires in the favelas of São Paulo. Several people joined the collaborative reporting project that became Fogo no Barraco (Fire in the Shanty), an interactive map that cross references data on fires with real estate appreciation near the affected areas. The map demonstrates the journalistic possibilities of online collaboration and crowdsourcing information.
The judge that ordered the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo to remove a blog post about a mayoral candidate in the Brazilian city Macapá, Amapá rescinded the decision to censor the post on Wednesday evening, Sept. 25.